Night Time Gadget Use and Quality of Sleep among Health Science Students in Bangalore, India

INTRODUCTION: Electronic gadgets have become a necessity for modern life, and unstructured use of these devices can result in sleep disturbances among youth in the digital era. This study correlated patterns of nighttime electronic gadget use and quality of sleep among health science students.METHODS: Cross-sectional research study was conducted among 243 health science students of selected colleges in Bangalore. The subjects comprised students from pharmacy 79 (32.6%), physiotherapy 79 (32.6%) and nursing 84 (34.7%). A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect demographic information on nighttime electronic gadget use. Sleep quality was assessed using Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). RESULTS: Watching movies (43.6%), communicating (36.1%) and academic use (20.3%) were the most reported purposes of nighttime gadget use among the students. 22.8 % of the participants were using the gadgets for 2-4 hours and 7.5 % of the students used them for more than 5 hours at night. Linear regression analysis revealed that the habit of checking one’s phone at night and staying up late at night had an impact on the daytime activity of students. Subjective sleep quality, sleep latency, sleep duration and sleep efficiency were significantly affected by nighttime gadget use.CONCLUSION: Unrestricted gadget use during nighttime can result in sleep-deprived individuals who may not be able to perform as efficiently. Effective measures should be initiated to structure the use of technologies.